DPA
KIEV
Just a day after nationwide Russian missile attacks, Ukraine restored the water supply in its capital Kiev on Thursday while the municipal services seemed to struggle to completely restore crucial electricity supplies.
After the major attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure the day before, the water supply in the capital city of 3 million people had completely collapsed due to power outages.
The district heating system also failed in many parts of the city, along with electricity, internet and mobile phone networks.
On Thursday afternoon, some parts of Kiev were still without power.
The deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, had an upbeat message. “In fact, all areas of Ukraine have been supplied with electricity,” Tymoshenko told Ukrainian television on Thursday.
But he did not specify how many Ukrainians actually have electricity again.
At the height of the outages, 70 percent of the capital was without electricity, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram earlier.
The municipal services have been working flat out to repair the damage, but Kiev’s power supply also depends on the stability of the entire energy system in Ukraine, the mayor said.
The Russian military fired about 70 missiles and drones at Ukraine on Wednesday, according to Kiev. As in previous attacks, the targets were mainly objects in the energy sector. After the Ukrainian nuclear power plants were shut down as a result of the attacks, there were power cuts across the country.
The neighbouring former Soviet republic of Moldova also continued to be without electricity in the morning. The energy networks of the two countries are closely linked.
The new commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, gained notoriety for attacking civilian targets to weaken his opponents during his deployment in Syria a few years earlier.
After his recent appointment in Ukraine, attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure have become an important part of Russian warfare in the now nine-month-old armed conflict.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and has wreaked havoc and destruction on many places since then. Tens of thousands of people have been killed. An end to the war, which Moscow initially hoped to win quickly, is not in sight.
The Kremlin openly admits that Russian attacks are hitting Ukrainian civilians hard.
